In a guest essay for The New York Times on Tuesday, Paramount CEO David Ellison says CNN is at the root of opposition to the company’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Concerns about market share are not the main driver of antitrust lawsuits filed by 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America, Ellison contends. “I believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases: the news,” he writes. “The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions.”
The proposed $110 billion merger is on hold pending the outcome of the lawsuit. A judge is expected to set a trial date for later this year or early in 2027.
The Times essay comes as Paramount is preparing to report second-quarter earnings after the close of trading. WBD will report on Thursday morning.
As to his anticipated stewardship of CNN, Ellison writes, “I can’t give anyone a view into my heart and mind, but I can share this: I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth.”
Last year, Ellison’s Skydance completed a merger with Paramount Global, giving the executive control of CBS News. That aspect of Paramount has created non-stop controversy, particularly after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit by the Trump administration over the editing and promotion of a 60 Minutes interview, with the suit widely viewed as frivolous.
CBS News and CNN are “here to tell it straight down the middle,” Ellison asserted in the essay. “That requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence. Our journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve – not to any party or cause. “
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